A month-long Aboriginal Floral Exposition featuring floral decorations for all 14 Aboriginal tribes will officially commence tomorrow, Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Sun Ta-chuang (孫大川) told a press conference yesterday.
“For Aborigines, flowers are an important medium of communication with ancestral spirits,” Sun told a news conference at the council’s headquarters in Taipei. “We -sincerely welcome all of you to come to the Taiwan Indigenous Peoples’ Cultural Park in Pingtung to visit this very unique exposition.”
Calivat Gadu, chief administrator of the cultural park, said traditional houses from all 14 -officially-recognized Aboriginal tribes had been reconstructed in the park, adding that the park also features most of the plants that are of important cultural significance for Aborigines.
“Different tribal houses are decorated with different flowers and there are also exhibitions of traditional handicraft work, such as pottery, for each tribe in the houses,” Calivat said.
Non-Aboriginal florist Wu Shang-yang (吳尚洋), who helped design the exposition, said the most challenging task for him was to give up his deep-rooted notions about flowers.
“For instance, chrysanthemums are mainly used at funerals, but for the Aborigines, are a symbol of -nobility,” he said. “Also, most people like fresh flowers, but Aborigines do not like to ‘kill’ the flowers for decoration when they’re fresh, and they believe that dried flowers represent harvest.”
Therefore, for Wu, the job was not only about making designs that look good, but also taking into consideration the uniqueness of Aboriginal culture.
The exposition runs from tomorrow through Dec. 31, but is closed on Mondays.
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